Abstract

Ropalidia amabalasp. nov. is described and compared to the known African species of this genus. In addition, the nest and nesting habits are described. This species demonstrates the nesting pattern previously recorded only in Madagascar, which includes nesting directly on a tree trunk and using lichen as the nest-building source material to blend in with the surrounding lichen patches. In contrast to the Malagasy species, which clean the nesting area of lichen, this new South African species constructs the nest in a clear area of the trunk between patches of lichen. This provides excellent visual concealment of the nest and suggests that visually driven predators are the primary selective factor. The morphology for both sexes of this species disagrees with known Malagasy species, suggesting that they are separate evolutionary lineages and hence that this nesting behaviour evolved independently.

Addeddate

2025-05-05 21:17:56

Bhl_virtual_titleid

210919

Bhl_virtual_volume

v.90 (2022)

Call number

10_3897_jhr_90_81581

Call-number

10_3897_jhr_90_81581

Foldoutcount

0

Genre

article

Identifier

newspeciespaper90pola

Identifier-ark

ark:/13960/s2czftzzf0t

Identifier-bib

10_3897_jhr_90_81581

Identifier-doi

10.3897/jhr.90.81581

Ocr

tesseract 5.3.0-6-g76ae

Ocr_detected_lang

en

Ocr_detected_lang_conf

1.0000

Ocr_detected_script

Latin

Ocr_detected_script_conf

1.0000

Ocr_module_version

0.0.21

Ocr_parameters

-l eng

Page_number_confidence

94

Page_number_module_version

1.0.5

Page_range

213-222

Pages

10

Pdf_degraded

invalid-jp2-headers

Pdf_module_version

0.0.25

Possible copyright status

In copyright. Digitized with the permission of the rights holder.

Ppi

300

Source

Journal of Hymenoptera Research 90

Year

2022

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